Juggling the mountain of binders and clipboards in her arms, she passes them to my father one by one as he babbles on about the poll.
"It's like they think the only thing on my mind is the damn pole." he said as we walked out of the turnout room.
"yep, sign this" she said passing him a clipboard.
"How many times do I have to say it?" he asked me "Don't cross country while we vent. Stick to a beam or stay off the roof. Its how people get hurt."
"Drink" she told him handing him a white-water bottle.
"We have got to remember to watch the perimeter more clo—" he cut himself off by taking a drink screwing up his face as he tasted what was inside. "This isn't water."
"It's a protein kale smoothie. You've been skipping means." She told him
"Keeping tabs on my food intake now?" he asked.
"Someone needs to. I also filed your incident reports, put the calendar out for approval, arranged maintenance checks on each –" she was cut off by him slamming his office door in her face. However, she knocks.
"Your lucky your my daughter," he said taking the water bottle that she was holding.
"So are you." she said walking away.
A few hours later they were all sat around the table in the dining room for dinner.
"All I'm saying is the whole point of a meatloaf is the meat." Dean complained looking at Travis who was standing in the kitchen cooking.
"I don't mind the veggie kind, especially when Travis makes it." Andy said disagreeing with Miller.
"Yeah, its pretty good." Jack agreed, looking at me with a slight sparkle in his eye. I hope that no one was paying attention to see it.
"Ah, thank you. It's my husbands recipe." Travis replied, walking over to the table.
Maya then made a comment to dean about bulking up to save more itty-bitty puppies. To which Dean asked is she was able to train for the Olympics by eating spaghetti made out of squash. They then went on to debate the benefits of consuming plant-based diets, Warren brining up the fact the he is a doctor as well. Which caused Vic to roll her eyes.
Warren then proceeded to ask the question about what Captain Pruitt Herrera meant by having guts. He told the story about the falling of the twin towers. Jacks eyes flicking towards Andy as he started to tell the story. Maya mouthed the words, 'She's baby Rambo.' As they came out of Captain Herrera's mouth.
As Andy changes the subject, Jacks eyes are still on he, almost like he is making sure she is okay as her father retells the story. As the subject changes to Vic talking about Dean putting his dress blue in with her washing, Andy looks up and meets Jack's eyes for a quick second before getting up from the table. His eyes follow her as she dumps her plate by the sink and walks out.
She paces back a forth as she waits for him to come in. As she hears to door open she turns towards him.
"Ohh, I hate that story. I've always hated that story." She says walking towards him. Yeah, he thinks it cute. It wasn't cute. It was messed up." She says.
"Forget about it." Jack says walking closer to her.
"I can't." She replies. So goes to say something however is cut off when Jack grabs her pushes her into the lockers kissing her.
"Distracted yet." He asks cutting off the kiss.
"Getting there" She replies kissing him again. "This is bold even for you."
"Say the word I'll stop." He says kissing her and lifting her up. He walks over and sets her on the bench at the end of the row of lockers. Running her hand down his leg she fells something in his pocket. And her eye start to widen. She reaches in to grab it as he tries to stop her.
She pulls out the box and opens it seeing the engagement ring. He tries to get it back from her. He tries to explain himself. As she cuts him off.
"Yes."
"Yes?" he asks confused.
"Yes, I want to marry you Jack." She says a small smile appearing across her face.
"No, were not doing this now, this isn't how it was supposed to happen, it was supposed to be romantic, not in some closet were we are still keeping this a secret from everyone." He said.
"I don't care. I want to marry you Jack, I love you. Okay, if you want to do it your way, I can pretend that I didn't find it, but –" She was cut off from her rambling by his lips. She feels him take her hand in his and the cold metal of the ring slip on to her finger. She smiles against his lips, just before the alarm goes off.
'Ladder, Engine, Aid Car 19, respond, apartment fire.'
They both let out a sigh as the run out of the turnout room towards their designated trucks for the shift. They both have to try to contain their smiles as the trucks pull away from the house sirens blaring. Andy is driving as Maya is still getting ready in the passenger seat.
She can see the small smile on her friends face,
"what happened, something happened, why are you smiling. I know you like fires but. Did something happen with Jack.?" She rambled. Andy just held up her hand which now contained an engagement ring. A simple silver band with a small diamond on it.
"you two got engaged? When?" she asked gasping reaching for her hand wanting to see it. However, Andy pulled away needing the hand to drive.
"Just then in the turnout room. I wasn't meant to find the ring, but I did and he said how it wasn't how he wanted to do it and he had the whole romantic thing planned, but I just said yes, and he put the ring of my finger." She said covering the mic so the rest of the team wouldn't hear.
"You know the fun is about have secret sex." She responded. At that point warren turned and asked what they were talking about.
"Nothing new guy." They both responded at the same time putting their headphones back on properly. Maya sneaks a small smile at her friend as they turn the corner and pull up to the apartment building that was on fire.
Pulling up, Warren comes over the radio, say there was a blocked hydrant. Andy recognises who was in front of the hydrant.
"Red zone applies to everyone." She says into the phone as she comes up behind the police curser slowly pushing it out of the way of the hydrant. "It goes for little old ladies, cops, bomb squad, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, Fire Department, anyone escaping the apocalypse, and then God. Are you God? Because if not." She said pulling the truck up to where it needed to be.
"Really?" the cop asked walking up to her.
"Well, I need the hydrant you weren't around."
"I was around, literally down the street evacuating people."
"You car was blocking the water source needed to fight the fire."
Grabbing all their gear thy paired up entering the building. Warren and Miller, locate the fire in an apartment building and manage to knock it out. before proceeding into the apartment. Captain Herrera and Gibson check apartments. Gibson looked through a children's bedroom before calling in his position to his Captain, only to get no response. He then called Andy. Telling her that he lost her dad. Andy manages to find Jack lecturing him about not going off on his own.
She put her feelings aside about him being her fiancée and focused on finding her father. They continue to look through the apartment before Maya finds him calling Andy over. She found Captain Herrera unconscious. They manage to get him into the kids bedroom before the fire flashes over. They find no pulse on their captain as Andy starts compressions Maya and Jack try to find a way out. Not wanting to leave until her father has a pulse to work quickly once a pulse is found. With not time left all four leap out of the window onto the airbags below.
They are checked as Herrera was loaded into the Aid car ad tears flow down Andy's face Jack grabs her pulling her into his chest coaxing her into breathing before they load up and head to the hospital. Maya drove to the hospital as Jack and Andy sat in the back Andy curled into his chest. Pulling up to the hospital Andy hoped out and made her way around to the back od the Aid car where the pulled her father from walking next to him into the trauma room.
"62-year-old male found unconscious at the scene of a fire, possible smoke inhalation. He collapsed while on duty, arrested and resuscitated on the scene."
"Okay. On my count, three. And one, two three." The doctor said as they transfer her father from one gurney to anther.
Jack stood into doorway of the trauma holding on to his fiancée as tear slowly streamed down her face as she watched to doctors work on her unconscious father. He laid there helpless. Tests were run as Andy and Jack walked away.
"You should get some O2." He said placing his hand on the small of her back.
"I'm fine. I don't need anything; I just need my father to be okay." She said getting worked up. "Why weren't you with him? You were supposed to stick together." She asked.
"I saw a kids room; you know how kids like to hide. Andy, I'm sorry okay.?" He told her.
"No, not okay, you know when there is zero visibility to stick together, no, not okay that my father is laying in a hospital bed a may not wake up. I am not okay." She said still working herself up. Jack took a couple steps forward and grabbed her pulling her to his chest as her tears came flowing from her eyes.
After a couple of minutes, Meredith Grey walked up to them checking on them, he whispered something to her and she lead them towards a small bay in the corner of the ER, Grey checks over them giving Andy some O2 as there was a small amount of smoke in her lungs.
Later the whole team sits in the waiting room, and on the stairs. Andy and Maya sit next to each other, Andy fiddling with the engagement ring this now sits on her left hand. Jack comes over to join them, he leans down to place a kiss on her forehead before sitting next to her. At this point she is glad that everyone is off in their own world as the only one that knows about their relationship is her father and Maya.
A few hours later Doctor Bailey and Doctor Grey come walking into the waiting room.
"He did great." Doctor Bailey told the firefighters.
"Thank you so much." Andy told them.
"Andy, I need to speak with you alone for a minute." Doctor Grey said.
Andy stood by his bed, whilst Jack sat in the chair across the room.
"How long was I out?" Pruitt asked.
Instead o responding, Andy pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket reading something off of it through gritted teeth.
"Peritoneal Mesothelioma. Tumours in your abdomen, bleeding." She said seeing Jack head drop out of the corner of her eye. "I know because I wrote it all down. It's why you passed out. You have Cancer, Dad. Stage 2."
"Andrea." He tried to cut her off however she kept going.
"Symptoms include, in order of escalation, stomach pain, fatigue, loss of appetite, irritability, cardiac arrest. How many of these have you been having?" She asked. "Were you ignoring them or just neglecting to tell me?" At this point Jack had risen from his seat and made his way over to the bed placing a hand on her shoulder, not as a sign to stop, but as a sign of support.
"I have to step down as Captain, effective immediately." He said not addressing her previous question.
"Did you already know about this?"
"There's no time to be angry, mija. I don't have that time. we don't." Andy couldn't believe what she was hearing. "The department will take a while to fill the post, of course. They always do. Gibson will – have to run the place till they do." He said looking at Jack slightly. He gave a squeeze of her shoulder in support. "Now go on, let me sleep."
Andy and Jack return to her and her fathers home. They both shower, and change, before Andy goes over to the fridge in search of beer. She finds some, pulling two out one for her and one for him. She then walked over to the washer throwing the sheets in before taking a swig of her beer.
The doorbell rings. She grabs her beer and walks over to answer it. Pulling the door open she is faced with Officer Ryan Tanner, the cop she rammed out of the way at the scene earlier in the night. She sighs,
"What do you want?" she asks leaning on the door slightly.
"I just wanted to see how you were doing." He said. Before she could answer Jack walked out of the bedroom in nothing but a towel.
"Hey babe, did you bring my duffle in? All my close I have here are dirty." He asked not realising they have company at the door.
"Ah, yeah its in the wardrobe." She yelled looking back at him and grinning slightly at the sight of his naked chest.
"So, you and Gibson, how long has that been going on?" Ryan asks a slight jealous tone to his voice.
"Why does it matter. Its my life and you don't get a say I who I do and do not get to screw, so you can turn around and walk right back next door." It was at this point he was the engagement ring on her finger.
"You got engaged?" he asked. He didn't get an answer all he got was the door slamming in his face.
That night Andy slept with her head on Jack chest, the thumping of his heart sooting her to sleep, however sleep was not as restful as she wanted it to be. Every time she drifted off she pictured her had flatlining again and again and again, she constantly woke in a breathing sweaty mess every time she closed her eyes.